


If You Should Lose Me

by JasnNCarly



Series: Michael and Sage (Universe includes Starr Manning) [3]
Category: General Hospital, One Life to Live
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-18
Updated: 2012-11-18
Packaged: 2019-05-21 23:17:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14924729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JasnNCarly/pseuds/JasnNCarly
Summary: Michael and Sage have discussed the past, but where does that leave their future?





	If You Should Lose Me

**AN: Follows _Fragile Contents_**

 

**If You Should Lose Me**

 

“Little Louie looks like he’ll be up to an even seven pounds when he and Mama leave tomorrow.”

 

Michael smiled down at his son who kicked his feet and grabbed at his father’s fingers, completely unaware one side of his family hated the name his mother selected for him.

 

_Luis Lorenzo Corinthos._

 

Their families checkered past shouldn’t have allowed that name to exist; yet there was his grinning son set to create a new history for them all.

 

Once the checkup was complete, Michael's instincts got the baby bundled up in his blue blanket – making sure the wrap was tight and secure. He gathered the baby into his arms and lifted his eyes away from his son to find the doctor’s look of approval, “Seems like you got everything under control.”

 

~*~

 

Louie seemed more palatable than Luis; a name Michael could probably learn to live with if it belonged to the beautiful child slumbering in his arms. 

 

Last year was less than 72 hours away from them yet it felt like another life; as he rocked his son with a calm movement in his arms, pacing Sage’s room, Michael wondered how life could feel so different in a single moment. How he could go from crippling doubt to absolute certainty, from focused on the past to drafting his future.

 

With an uneasy breath filling the air, Michael caught Sage’s almond eyes pop open and fill with alarm when the baby wasn’t right beside here, “He’s okay. He’s right here.”

 

Sage set her eyes on the baby and settled, “What did they say?”

 

“He’s perfectly healthy. He’ll be ready to go home with you.”

 

She nodded, planting her hands against the mattress and attempting to find a comfortable seated position.

 

“Wait.” Michael urged her with frustration; setting their son down carefully the bassinet beside her and helping her adjust. 

 

As his hands gently pressed the tense muscles of her back, their eyes briefly connected.

 

He took a step back, “They should be able to release you tomorrow.”

 

“Great.” Sage reached over to her son’s blanket, softening her tone, “It’ll be nice to have Luis get settled into something besides a hospital room.”

 

“The doctor was calling him Louie; he seemed to be okay with that.”

 

“He’s barely three days old, and you’re already letting him make life decisions?” Sage’s sarcasm was slightly undercut by her pleased smirk, “Fine, Corinthos, we’ll call him Louie, but the birth certificate is pretty clear.”

 

They said little to each other since that first argument, in hopes of avoiding another blow out; instead, they kept all of their conversations minimal and focused on their son.

 

They wouldn’t have a choice tomorrow; the second she signed release papers, the tension would return in every single decision they made – an agreement required for any aspect of their son’s life – a practice they hadn’t learned to maintain.

 

“I won’t leave town, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

 

Michael had a thousand responses sitting anxiously on the tip of his tongue, all mean spirited and soured by the past months. Biting on the right side of his tongue, he settled his nerves before giving any kind of response to Sage.

 

Sage grew uncomfortable under Michael’s watchful eye, tucking hair behind her ears and bowing her head with a quiet chuckle, “I can imagine what I look like right now.”

 

Taking the chair at her bedside, he reached up to brush his fingers along her cheek; when their eyes met again, he offered her a half grin, “Still beautiful.”

 

Two words and her eyes were misted with tears, her head dropping further in attempt to hide her quivering lip.

 

“Sage, we have to talk about your next move.”

 

“I’m going to stay in Port Charles, okay?” Her frustration was evident in the breath she released as dropped her head back and set her eyes on the ceiling, “I don’t need any directives from you or your family on how to raise our son or live my life. I made a mistake,” She drew in a deep breath, tears trailing over the hills of her cheekbones as she avoided his eyes, “a huge mistake that I can’t take back. I get that, please just…give me the benefit of the doubt for just a second.”

 

The doctor had warned him that everything Sage was going through would be amplified by her elevated hormone levels, and his patience would have to be maintained at an all-time high.

 

“Hey, this isn’t me judging you.” Michael waited for her to roll her head his way, her eyes still anticipating his anger, “I just want to make sure I’ve done everything I can for you and Louie.” 

 

“…you’re just stuck on his name, huh?”

 

“What are you going to do, really? Where are you going when you’re released tomorrow?”

 

“I don’t know. I could…stay in a nice hotel for a few days until my real estate agent has found me something permanent.”

 

“Is that what you want?”

 

She tucked her chin towards her chest once more, mumbling, “You don’t want to know what I want.” 

 

“Yes,” Michael curled one of his hands around hers, tunneling his eyes into hers the second she presented another opportunity, “I do.”

 

“Did you miss me? I mean – at all – when you were with Starr? Did you two just pick up the second I left town or—“

 

“This isn’t about Starr.”

 

Sage chewed her lower lip, obviously anxious to go on by stopping herself out of respect for him; after a moment, she glanced at her son then back to him, “We need a home.”

 

He tightened his hold on her hand, his voice husky and low, “I want to give you one.”

 

Sage’s lips curved at his proclamation, her hands immediately cupping his face in her hands and pulling his face gently to her own; Michael didn’t fight the movement, willing to give into her impulsive action as he had been anxious to do it since she returned to him.


End file.
